Palmyra battle: Russia announced soldier’s death

Russia’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 6 March that one of its soldiers was killed during the operation to retake the ruined city of Palmyra in Syria’s Homs province from Islamic State militants.

“Contract soldier Artyom Gorbynov was conducting a mission in the Syrian Arab Republic to protect a group of Russian military advisors,” the TASS news agency quoted a MoD statement as saying. “Gorbynov died on 2 March in the area of Palmyra rebuffing an attempt by a group of Islamic State militants to attack positions of Syrian troops, where Russian military advisers were at that moment.”

The MoD released no additional details of Gorbynov’s military service or unit, but the Ukrainian Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) reported that it had confirmed he served with the 96th Separate Reconnaissance Brigade on the basis of a photo posted on social media showing him at the unit’s base in Nizhny Novgorod.